'I don't think there's a better coach in the NFL than Lovie'

Support for Bears coach Lovie Smith from inside of Halas Hall inherently has a ''dog-bites-man'' level of newsworthiness. But the level of passion for a coach as dispassionate as Lovie Smith shouldn't be ignored.

''I don't think there's a better coach in the National Football League than Lovie Smith,'' wide receivers coach Darryl Drake said. ''And I'm not saying that because I work for him. I'm saying that because I truly believe that.

''It's a blessing for me to work for him. I don't know if I'll work for anybody else. I'm at a stage in my career where he has set the bar really, really high. He let's us coach. He let's us do our thing. We're responsible for production. But his approach to the game, to me, is the way it should be done.''

Like Drake, special teams coordinator Dave Toub has been with Smith since he came to Chicago but had not coached with him before that.

''We are very lucky -- the Chicago Bears are very lucky -- to have Lovie Smith, and we better realize that. Everybody better realize that,'' Toub said.

''He lets coaches coach. He lets me do my job. He has total trust in everything that I do. Obviously, I don't call everything without going through him - but he lets me design our schemes and doesn't second-guess what we do. You can't get a better situation as a coach.''

Smith's loyalty to his coaches and his players is one of the hallmarks of his coaching tenure with the Bears. It has kept his team together through difficult times. The Bears have faltered in key moments in his nine years as head coach -- the Bears have made the playoffs three times under Smith -- but rarely if ever because of a fractured locker room.

''Every player you talk to is going to tell you the same thing. Every one of them,'' Drake said. ''The players don't lie. They're the ones that know.

''I have guys all over the league that say, 'Man I wish I was with y'all.' It's all because of him. And it's all across the league. Active guys. I could never tell you their names because that would get them in trouble. But it happens all the time.

''The perception that [the media] have, that's just people. Not everybody's going to like Lovie Smith. Not everybody's going to like Darryl Drake. They're just people and that's their deal. But the way I look at it, we are blessed to have him.''

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2 Comments

Does everyone willingly accept 9 years of losing to elite teams? Does everyone accept embarrassing losses when everything is on the line? Sorry, I don't understand this affinity for someone who is incapable of winning the big games. Maybe more folks have a deeper appreciation of mediocrity than me. The Bears won't win anything big until Lovie is removed.

Drake is a perfect example of why Lovie should be fired. The guy has never done anything and has milked a pay check for years. All drake does is talk about how great all his guys are and keeps telling people to wait and see. You can't teach talent, that's true but his guys do not even know how to run routs and that is coaching. When Drake tried to to teach his guys to beat the jam whe did not know how to do it So Jon Hoke came over and did it for him. The guy teaching Jeffery how to push off and get seperation? Marshall The guy has never done a thing for the Bears and Lovie kept him around because he is a yes man.

I love how supposedly every player in this league is suddenly calling him telling him how great Lovie is. How would players from other teams know? They don't play for him. they don't know him, so how do they know what he is like? You think Lovie is running around the league hanging out with all the players?

Loyal to his coaches? The guy has fired more coaches than any other head coach out there.

Of course he doesn't want Lovie fired, who else would let this clown cash a check? He didn't even know what position to put Bennett, and insisted Devin was a great receiver. He can't even teach his guys how to break the right way. Marshall came in here and showed everyone what a reciever is suppose to play like. He knows how to run routs, break off routs, how to get seperation, how to read his QB, how to read the secondary, how to adjust his routs. None of that was from Drake. The only thing Drake could teach Knox and Hester was a damn go rout. 'Just run that way really fast'

I would like to see Lovie fired just so Drake gets canned. Please get rid of this blood sucking leech. The only thing Smith is loyal to is his friends and family. He brought in Martz, let Babich run the defense, and uses OC's as his human decoy's. He knows nothing about offense, hence the reason Drake still has a job. Lovie is the Head Coach of defense when it has a good year, the head coach of special teams when it has a good year, but he is never the coach of the offense. If it works it's all him, if it's bad it's the OC's fault. Con artists runnin' around coaching this team.

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ABOUT THE BLOGGERS

Adam L. Jahns is a native Chicagoan.
Jahns has been with the Sun-Times since 2005, covering the Hawks since 2009.
He's also helped cover the Bears, Cubs, Sox and high schools.
Follow him on Twitter:@adamjahns